Rat Meat For Sale in London's Grubbier Meat Markets

Reporters working on outing meat traders in London have discovered rat meat being offered for sale on the streets, which is imported and sold as "bush meat" -- a supposed delicacy for those with firm constitutions.

Perhaps even worse than scenes of rat meat being sold out of cardboard boxes beside the road was the discovery of the sale of what is known as "smokies" within the meat trade, a particularly grim cut of meat that comes from sheep or goats that have been burned with a blow torch to melt their skin onto the meat.

The BBC London crew were investigating the meat trade in and around the Ridley Road Market in Dalston, east London, where the rats and smokies were being openly, albeit a little secretly, traded. Despite being warned over the years, a BBC freedom of information request found that Hackney council last made any sort of enforcement visit to the meat market back in 2009.

So if you're bored with your usual brand of sausages, give it a visit. [BBC]